Christiane F./Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo: Realitätsgehalt
03.04.2019 um 15:35
Hello and thank you for your replies,
Actually, the impression that it leaves to me is that the book is not the rough and authentic narrative of the girl but a very well worked fabric for logical and obvious commercial reasons. The first is the main character: a lot of suffering, but out comes a sort of image of the glitter and underground baby-queenpin, beautiful, dominant, skilful, cunning, glamour to death. Completely modern and trendy to the bone!
Christiane in "Wir Kinder (...)" is smarter and more sensitive than her friends. She's shown as more pudic, prudent and clever than Babsi and Stella who were younger than her, and pretty too, she did not have to hook johns seriously to earn money quickly, moreover, she is too beautiful and too classy for that! The others sell themselves for few marks, and she, receives a lot of money and tributes, totally refusing to sleep with men. She decides, she directs, she is dominant, alone, fragile, young, on the pavement, at night in front of rich and confused men. She stands up, she’s a fighter despite the dangers, wins the game, even full of heroin. What an image!
This is why Christiane’s aura is harnessed with invincibility (this is the most important between the lines). Stella is worn out and heartless, Babsi is a no-limit homeless girl up for every hard stuffs, almost disgusting and suicidal, Detlef is a little servile and ambiguous, but Christiane always keeps her head up. Facing the customers by car from Kurfurstenstrasse, facing the customers of the Zoo, facing Heinz, facing Jurgen the man who organizes orgies, facing Strotter Max: she is always smart, clever, perceptive, lucid, introspective,dominant, almost too pudic and too neat. She’s a half shade prostitute, not at all made of the same wood as all the other girls "completely worn-out girls, forced to sleep with clients". She's not that girl that permit anyone to screw her in anyway (really? Seriously?) She does not have to, she screams them and remains beautiful, desirable, fresh, inaccessible, an underground unreachable diva.
What better way to create a fascinating character: deep in the mud, she comes out whiter than the swan.
The choice of the icon was very wise too, i'd have done the same one. Out of 10,000 junkies in Berlin in 1978, they chose by far the most beautiful, the most photogenic, the most suitable for gimmicks. She always wanted to be a little star, in primary school, high school, Haus der Mitte, Zoo station, on the subway platforms. She says it herself "In the middle of all these junkies, i walk like the star among the stars, i find myself wonderful" (and this was repeated in her song "wunderbar").
The publishing house could not dream best ambassador in the long term, destructive, borderline, loving cameras, speaking without lighthouse, with a face of madonna, girly, coquettish, flirtacious, attractive, worldly, playing the game indefinitely.
If you look at the german press articles that we find, this vein is inexhaustible, not a month without the interview of a stranger declaring "I sold dope to Christiane F. at Sound disco", "I met Christiane F. in a methadone clinic", "I met Christiane F. every day when i was a junky homeless", "Christiane F.'s dog bit me at Hermannplatz".
Then, there are too many inconsistencies, even between the first book and the second book, which is shocking. In 1977, she had to make two customers a day to buy two quarters of a gram of heroin (80 marks in those days) she even calculated her monthly income by explaining that at fifteen years, she earned more money than a commercial director by not getting too tired. When she tries to commit suicide in public toilets at fifteen, she thinks half a gram will be enough, and in the second book, she naturally tells that in 1977 she took four grams of heroin a day! It doesn’t match at all. And it’s impossible, the dope was too strong and too expensive. Physically, she would not have lasted, and even by prostituting herself for 20 hours a day, she would not have been able to afford it. It is incoherent. These are punchy sentences to shock but written without thinking that readers will have doubts. Too much!
In conclusion, i think that some parts have been voluntary "forgotten", others have been enhanced, others have been diminished in order to obtain a perfect version of this history transformed into an urban and decadent fairy tale, accessible to all. Everyone loves the urban story of the fucked-up girl discovered on rainy day in the subway by a talent scout, who becomes super-model. Christiane F., that’s it, an icon of the subculture from the last 70s to these days, with the background of hard drugs, pimps, smelly toilets, sordid stations, Bowie, male prostitutes, whipping, slashes, lashes and sexy garters on teeny skinny bodies.So punky chic, and Heroin chic!
I always thought that Christiane had become an employee of the publishing house, having to carry out her duties as ambassador, even when she no longer understood the interest. This is her job, she is paid for it, the trademark "Christiane F." is still at the top in 2019 (first book, film, second book, interviews, reedition of the film in blu-ray, theater pieces, Soundtrack of the film sold on many web platforms, fashion collections with the imagery "Christiane F". exploited on the catwalks, adverts ( from Raf Simmons in Spring/Summer 2018 to 70s Gucci chic couture clothings in 2016, passing by casual Vans shoes in limited edition, with the face of Natja Brunckhorst) etc... And i don't even talk about all the YT channels, the bloggers who share Christiane's songs and movies!
Angelina Jolie is ambassador for Dior, Christiane for Alex Springer. Trash and glamour.
In other words, in 2019, the image "Christiane F." still brings a lot of money to the world’s largest industries!
Last point: Christiane’s mother was executive secretary at Alex Springer publishing, is it a coincidence?
